Information overload!

Stay calm.... Breath..... Those are the words I repeated over and over again in my head this morning as I had to walk into a professional development training that had already been in session for two hours.  To make it worse, this was an ongoing training that had been meeting throughout the summer. I found out Friday night that I have to attend this training Monday and Tuesday, and at least once a month for the remainder of the year.  

I'm only two hours late, and I had a good excuse.  When I checked in at the front office to ask which room the training was taking place, (I wasn't sent the agenda) I was told room C101 and C102.  

Hmmm.... Which one should I walk into first. Naturally, I choose the room with the least amount of people.  

"Excuse me, sorry to interrupt but am I in the right room?" (Me).  "Which room are you looking for?" "Ummmm....I really don't know.....what training is this?" (Me). "Blah, blah, blah, for administrators." "Definitely not the room I'm looking for!"

Stay calm.....breath....breath......

I walked into the next room and sat down.  

I was feeling so lost at first, but caught up pretty quickly.  Information overload!!!  Not only am I supposed to remember and retain all this information, but its also my responsibility to train the entire staff at my school everything we learned.  

What I learned:

Information, no matter how important, MUST be reflected on in order for it to be meaningful!

In order to teach others what I learn, I need to offer opportunity to apply it, make it meaningful and allow for collaboration or reflection.  I've always thought it was a waste of my time when I attended professional developments in which we spent what feels like forever playing jeopardy, or making posters with the information we were given.  I get it now!  I totally understand now how important it is.  I can guarantee if I just copied the handouts and made notes for each staff to read and learn on their own might get briefly skimmed, buried under a pile of papers that need graded, or immediately recycled.